Personal Statements
Describe how you have taken advantage of a significant educational opportunity or worked to overcome an educational barrier you have faced.
I have been in the United States for almost seven years and the greatest obstacle that I have faced until now is learning English. It has been a journey for me to adapt to American society: a society that I knew nothing about and my language barrier restricted my ability to communicate. Starting my freshman year in high school, I borrowed kids’ books from my seven-year-old nephew and started reading with a dictionary alongside. I also practiced talking and writing in English with people around me, so that I could improve my English skill. My English gradually got better over time, but there were still moments when I struggle to express myself in English fluently. It was hard for me to apply for a job, and due to my lack of English, I shied away from educational opportunities because I was not confident with my second language. By the time I got into college, I had realized that my improvement in English was not up to par with the college level. Since my major was Business, I knew that it would require a lot of understanding and communication. I had a tough time in my English courses, but that struggle was worth it because I came out learning a lot. Even though I know that I still have a lot to improve on, I’m glad about how my English development and what I have learned this far.
What would you say is your greatest talent or skill? How have you developed and demonstrated that talent over time?
I have always been fascinated with the concept of building and assembling objects. I appreciate the feeling of assembling parts together like how every small piece of a puzzle com...
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...any of my business peers and joined business groups while at the community college. After taking the first two business courses, I knew this was the path I wanted to take and will succeed in this major. I am still taking and planning to finish the requirement courses that I need before transferring. I have taken Financial Business, which teaches financial accounting, forms of organizations, accounting information systems, and application of general accounting principle. I also have taken Managerial Accounting which examines how managers use accounting information in decision-making, planning, directing, operating, and controlling. I am planning to complete the business law course this spring before transferring, which covers legal setting and how businesses function with emphasis on legal reasoning and resolution, contracts, agency, partnerships and corporations.
Luckily this time, I already had the resources to further increase my English ability. Instead of attending a local Taiwanese school, my parents thought it would be best for me to attend an American school, where I could continue improving my English. Being one of the few well-established American schools in Taiwan, the school had a good reputation and great facilities, so naturally, it attracted many foreign teachers. These teachers, coming over teach boosted the school’s quality of education and further increasing the reputation as well. I continued working on my English, learning all the rules of grammar and punctuation, writing different types of papers, ranging from research to persuasive essays. Eventually, I would be writing my own personal statement and filling out college applications. Again, something I never thought would happen when I was four years
The first and second year after moving from China to the United States, I was afraid to talk to strangers because my English was not very well. I had to depend on my husband for dealing with my personal business, such as making a doctor’s appointment, calling to the bank, or questioning to DMV officers. Douglass says, “being a slave for life began to bear heavily upon my heart” (62). For myself, being a dependent and helpless adult is a shame. Moreover, I lacked of extra money to go to school to improve my English. Thus, I stayed home all the time to avoid embarrassment of talking to strangers. After a while, I realized that improving English speaking skills are the essential to gain my self-confidence. So, I spent time to read various articles on the internet and watched English dialogues’ videos on YouTube. As a non-English speaking immigrant living in the U.S., I inevitably encountered a series of difficulties to integrate myself into a new
I grew up in a household where education was seen as a form of self-improvement and empowerment. Being raised in rural Central California by two Filipino immigrants who had nothing more than a high school education, my family did not have an educated or intellectual history I could look up to. That is, until my mother decided to get a college education at the age of 45. I must have been in middle school at the time, before which the word “college” was never really spoken or talked about and I could honestly say I only had a vague idea of what it even was. Rather than having the traditional sit down talk with my parents about higher education, my mom clearly spoke to me through example. I distinctly remember times where I would be her study buddy, and while doing so, I found myself leisurely enjoying the pages of her science textbooks. Instead of asking her questions related to her upcoming text, I inquisitively asked juvenile questions like, “How do the genes make us?” Today I know that this is a very big and complex question that we are still trying to answer. Yet at that moment, I wanted an answer, but mother did not have the solution, nor did the textbook. That was the birth of my pursuit of scientific career.
My best (and favorite) subject in school is Math. Ever since I was very little I have loved math, and worked very hard at it. When I do not fully understand topics I do extra problems to make sure that they become clear to me. I spend a lot of time working on math to make sure I understand the topics throughly. I have been in math clubs since 4th grade, and in 7th grade I represented my school at the MathCounts® competition where I won a two silver pins. I won the Virginia State Math Award in 7th grade, and this year I got an 800 in math on my SSAT. As a result of my hard work I am currently one of three students in my school to be in the highest math group, Precalculus.
Living in Jamaica and Antigua and Barbuda for most of my academic life presented me with a great challenge when I first arrived in the United States. As an immigrant my spoken English was not well developed. Being a Caribbean native, English is not our primary language and I had little to no practice in speaking it. When talking with professors and other students I was conscious of the fact I sounded different, may have been speaking the incorrect words, or that might not be understood. Furthermore, in Jamaica we use slang in both conversation and in writing. It was an adjustment for me to speak one way and write another. Anot...
Hmmm………What shall I tell you about me? You, the person who will decide my fate, my fate as to whether I would go to CU-Boulder, go live in Colorado, go snowboarding in the mountains, meet lots of interesting people, and have the most wonderful experience…I better make myself sound worthy. First off, I want you to know that I'm an unparalleled individual, whose outlook on life is of total optimism. Through out my 18 years, I've become freinds with people from all walks of life. I've learned to empathize with just about every one of them, gaining the greatest understanding in a variety of remarkable characters. One of my favorite, a homeless lady who's called Polly, tells the most incredible stories of love and the many men she has encountered in her 54 years of life. She lives under a bridge and panhandles for a living, yet she appears so happy and dandy, and she can put a smile on my face any day. She's the kind of person who makes me appreciate all the little things people like myself normally take for granted. I come from a family in which the parents struggled starting fresh at 30 years old in a new world, America. They came here in refuge from a country whose leader had forsaken his people, leaving them in a four year long nightmare in which over two million people were done to death. That country is Cambodia. The parents came to America, after having survived such evil and cruelty, not knowing a word of English, yet they persevered with desire of better lives for their two daughters.
Soaked under sweat, I stood on the running machine, took a deep breath, and counted in my mind, one…two… three, GO! With renewed power and confidence, I started to run again with satisfaction. This moment happened every day in last summer at a gym and I lost 62pounds. Had persisted for five months, I am so proud of myself that I am able to achieve the goal of losing weight and established high self-discipline. In addition, I have gained great appreciation for the challenges. However, I also have grown up from this, on the other hand, frustrated experience. Not because the process of losing weight was painful, but because my by-product of the weight loss journey, my online team.
1. At CoBA, we place great importance in values, initiative and professionalism. Describe one example of how you have demonstrated these qualities.
For some students a report card is an accurate reflection of their abilities, aspirations, and future work habits. Many friends of mine have flawless, or near flawless, report cards. Straight A's and weighted GPA's well over 4.0 grace their every progress report, and I am certain they will continue this streak of academic excellence well into the future. For others, C's, D's and fail's are a normal occurrence, and much like the straight A students, I have no doubt that they will continue down this path. But for some students, like myself, a report card is not an accurate picture of academic ability. I am not afraid to admit - to friends, family, or schools I intend to apply to - that my grades aren't good. I haven't had a GPA anywhere near 4.0 in at least 3 years, and at times this fact makes me proud. While I usually earn B's or C's in my classes, there are a few bright spots on my academic record. I am in the 98th percentile of the SAT test, and in the 99th on the ACT. I achieved a 5 on the AP Computer Science test, and despite a C in my AP Physics class, I managed a 4 on the final exam. On top of that, in my two years on El Camino Real High School's Academic Decathlon team I have been the highest scoring C Student in all of the Los Angeles Unified School District twice in a row, placed third in the state of California, and look forward to a promising season this year.
No matter how hard I study English, there is a fact that my English can never be stay in a same level as Americans. Although I spent straight four years of study in English, whenever I found mistakes in any shape of works in English, I lost all of my confidence that I can do better. Many people say that study in an American college shows my effort to overcome in the language perfectly. In fact, getting to higher quality of education in English makes myself to compare with other students so that I can realize English, which I use, is not the language accept in a college
Please discuss the following items in the order given. Briefly respond to all areas listed.
Since the beginning of my academic endeavors, I have long cherished a dream to be a member of the social science research community, which gives our society progressive insights into human ecology. I began my undergraduate studies at Ramapo College of New Jersey with a passion for ecological justice and with the intention of majoring in environmental studies. Ramapo College’s progressive liberal arts foundation provided me with ample room to explore the multifarious array of social science courses. As I took more social science courses, however, my understanding of human social groups underwent a metamorphosis. As a result, I decided to pursue a degree in Social Science, with minors in the two fields I felt most passionately interested in, Women’s Studies and African American Studies.
Functionalist Talcott parsons once stated that education is a key component of the social body, just like the heart is integral to the functioning of the human body. To me this expresses that the importance of primary education lies in its ability to set societies core values and ensure they are passed on. Primary education teaches children an established set of ethics as well as how to treat each other and coexist peacefully and successfully as human beings. What particularly sparks my interest is how the broad spectrum of subjects and activities that children undergo during their time at primary school give them an opportunity to begin to shape their identities and discover their interests. My passion to become a primary school teacher originates
I began to get fascinated by our capitalist world’s economy at a very early age of my life. Growing up, I was incredibly curious to unravel how systems function, and this curiosity developed into a burning desire to learn how processes and organizations operate and run our world. As I started my first job, I realized how much I needed to be better acquainted with the science of money making and the scientific approaches to money management. Later on in my life, being within a company system, I wanted to see the big picture by learning where such a company stands in the midst of all other business interactions locally and internationally. Being involved in the company’s practices I started analyzing the methods used by my managers, the causes and consequences of their managerial choices.
1. I encountered the most significant challenge when I moved to Canada in January, 2012. Before I came to Canada, my English grade was very good in China, thus, I thought living and studying in Canada would not be too difficult. However, I did not do well in the ESL evaluation at all, and I was placed in ESL 1 at my high school. Most of my classmates there spoke very little English, and they did not spend much time and effort on studying English. It was very difficult for me to study if I wanted to be their friends and at that time, they were the only friends I had in Canada. However, I expected much more effort from myself. I studied very hard and became the 2nd fastest ESL students ever to complete ESL 1 to 4 in my high school. Today, when I recall what I have accomplished, I think I learnt to trust myself and at the same, success in anything only comes from hard work.